To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird
Reading is the key to understanding our world, when we read good books we open our minds to new ideas. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is an exploration of human morality, set in the 1930s when racism was very common in Alabama. The story is viewed from the innocent eyes of a young child Scout and her brother Jem.
Social inequalities create opportunities for prejudice and discrimination throughout the novel. Maycomb was an old run down town ‘but it was tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slope; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. The repetition of ‘old’ stresses the age of the place and suggests a lack of energy. The personification of the town, which is described as ‘tired’ furthers this impression. The setting can be seen as a metaphor of the way this society must change. Differences in social status are explored largely through the overcomplicated social hierarchy of Maycomb. People were treated differently based in their colour and social classes. There was a social class between the black and the white’s people. White people are known as gentlemen, educated, noble, unattainable and perfect. As for the blacks, people there were treated with no dignity, and kept uneducated. It can been seen, when Atticus tells the children ‘ As you grow older, you’ll see white man cheat black man everyday of your life, but let me tell you whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he come from. That white man is trash’. Atticus, the moral voice of the book, describes a racist person as ‘trash’, this highly emotive term for rubbish showing his rejection of racism. Overall, the novel helps the reader see that prejudice is damaging to societies both past and present.
One of the significant themes explored within the novel is education, in which Harper Lee discusses her opinion on the educational system in Maycomb. Throughout the novel Lee suggest that the education system was very contradictory, inequitable and has many flaws. When Scout goes to school on her first day of grade one, she is already ahead of her classmates. However, Lee also implies the teachers are very negative, once her teacher Mrs. Caroline discovers this, she didn’t take it as a compliment and punished Scout and told her "'Your father does not know how to teach. You can have a seat now.' Through Miss Caroline's paradoxical views, the education in the town of Maycomb is viewed as unimportant. Scout comes to Atticus with concerns about her education was useless, Atticus explain to Scout, making her understand that she must get an education, even though she might find the process frustrating. ‘"If you'll concede the necessity of going to school, we'll go on reading every night just as we always have. Is it a bargain?” Said Atticus, this portrays how the education system runs in Maycomb. Although she knows she has done nothing wrong, she is told to accept it without any questioning. Education is the key to unlock the ignorance that causes prejudice. Jem begins to understand this lesson when he wonders whether family status could be based more on education than on bloodlines. This ironic situation of education clearly shows readers that understanding is a precious thing that cannot reside in perfectly cut patterns.

The theme of innocence is depicted through the children of the town. This can be seen through the moral voice of Atticus telling his children to ‘try to step into other people’s shoes to understand how they see the world’. Tom Robinson, a black man is revealed a kind, generous, polite and a man that likes to help. His sympathy to a white woman Mayella, when helping her with household chores accused him of rape. Atticus tries to defend Robinson against the innocence fact. During the trial, Bob Ewell states that, ‘I see that black negro ruttin’ on my Mayella’. Even though Atticus tries really hard to defend Robinson against this false fact, but nothing could be proved. ‘There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads, they couldn’t be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s word, the white always win. They’re ugly, but these are the facts of life’ Atticus said. Robinson tries to escape and was shot 17 times and died innocently. The novel demonstrates what deadly effects innocent can have on people and its effect on an entire town of people. There was this one quote that makes people very profound was when Atticus said to Jem one day, ‘I’ll rather you shoot at tins cans in the backyard, shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Mockingbirds don’t do one thing, but sing their heart out for us to enjoy. That’s way it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. The novel is trying to make the readers understand that you don’t hurt the innocent, you protect them. Mockingbirds are innocent birds unlike the other birds; Mockingbirds need our care, just like to human society.
By the end of the novel, Maycomb sees to be very quiet and peaceful after the prejudice has happen, everything seens to be monotonous. The society begins to have a positive change against prejudice and realising that Boo Radley, Atticus and Tom Robinson differences are what give them characteristic and without their characteristic and justice, life in Maycomb would not have a meaning.